Romanticising Resistance, Romanticising Culture: problems in Willis's theory of cultural production

Abstract Paul Willis's theory of cultural production, first elaborated in Learning to Labour and defended in later work, suffers from two errors, essentialism and dualism. These are more serious than the objections against which Willis has tried to defend his theory—that it is left functionalist and politically pessimistic—and indeed are the reason why he cannot answer such objections satisfactorily. The consequence, notwithstanding Willis's disavowals, is an entrenched romanticising of both ‘resistance’ and ‘culture’, especially male working class culture.